


Congruent Shapes

by orphan_account



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Baking, Chowder is understanding, Future Fic, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2017-02-21
Packaged: 2018-09-26 00:25:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9853586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Because Whiskey and Tango are Chowder's friends, and Chowder is helpful.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Cross posted from tumblr; I love Bitty to death but I kinda wanna acknowledge that Bitty is a goddamn mother hen and I don’t always appreciate that (as someone who both is a mother hen at times and has been mother henned to the point of annoyance).
> 
> Also I wanted Chowder being the go to team member for Whiskey and Tango to talk to. Also small, sort of allusions to Chowder being Bitty’s alternate if you squint hard enough. Set during the Frogs’ Junior year.

Whiskey waited until Bitty was out of town in Providence before he dragged Tango up to Chowder’s room.

Chowder knew who was at his door by the stilted knock; there was only one person who came up to his room and still knocked as if he wasn’t entirely sure if he was welcome and it was Whiskey. He called a “come in!” and made space on the bed for Whiskey and Tango to make themselves at home. Whiskey shuffled in, shifting from foot to foot until he decided it was better to just have a seat on the bed. Tango made himself at home on the bed immediately.

“What’s up?” Chowder asked, leaning back in his desk chair with a smile.

“We were just at Annie’s,” Tango responded immediately, while Whiskey composed his thoughts. He was filling in space with his words. “And I think I got offered a job? I dunno, usually I ‘ask too many questions’ but the manager was running through a checklist and-”

Whiskey’s hand entangled with Tango’s and Tango stopped. He looked over at Whiskey, who was staring down at the floor, before his eyes came up to meet Chowder’s, and Chowder knew without needing to ask that the following question was going to be something that Whiskey has been holding in for a very long time.

“...How do you deal with Bitty?”

It was something of a loaded question, because of all the possible answers that could come from it. Chowder needed some sort of elaboration.

“What do you mean?” he responded.

“I mean, he always calls you stuff like ‘sweet baby’ and he kind of treats you like you’re not an adult?” Whiskey continued. And Chowder saw what Whiskey meant, and he thought on how to respond for a moment.

When he thought he might have a suitable answer, he said, “I talked to him.”

It’s clearly not enough, if Chowder’s judging by the way Whiskey’s face has contorted into confusion, but Tango seemed to have comprehended a bit better, judging by the facial expressions Tango goes through. It makes sense, Chowder thought, because Tango has spent more time in the Haus. Tango knew that there  _ was  _ a talk.

“It used to be lot worse. Back in, like, Freshman year? He used to be a  _ lot _ worse with it,” Chowder explained. “And like, the end of Sophomore year Lardo told me to sit down with him, and explain the racism of it, and to get him to understand why it was bad. So I did.”

Chowder remembered that talk. There was pie, of course, but also tea Chowder’s mother had sent him, something new and different for Bitty that Bitty had been open to trying. It was like neutral ground with things from both of them and made the talk easier somehow. When he had explained why it wasn’t good for Bitty to always call him those names and treat him as anything other than an adult most of the time, Bitty had understood.

Bitty had apologized. Bitty had promised to make the effort to be better about it. And he was trying, and it was all Chowder could really ask for, that Bitty try and be better, and the fact that the names had died down quite a bit along with Bitty asking his opinion on things more often and deferring to him a few times on team related things made it better. It didn’t change that Bitty  _ had _ been that way, but it showed that he was trying to be better.

Chowder explained it to Whiskey, who was hardly in the Haus these days, likely to avoid Bitty’s mothering, because if there was one thing Eric Bittle could do if given proper motivation it was mother. And ‘mothering’ was only one letter away from ‘smothering.’

“So you just talked to him? Sat down with him and just… told him everything?” Whiskey thought the concept a bit foreign, mainly because he felt like he wasn’t really allowed to sit down with Bitty after all the avoiding he generally did. Bitty was his captain, and though he hadn’t told Whiskey he couldn’t speak to him and never gave off that kind of aura, Whiskey felt like he just shouldn’t. Better to avoid and stay distant in his eyes.

“Yep. If he knows there’s a problem he’ll try to fix it,” Chowder finished. He looked pointedly at Whiskey. “I know you hate when he does all the worrying and acting like a parent, but he really does care.”

Tango seemed to agree. “Yeah! He used to be kinda vague in some of his answers when I asked questions but now he’s not and he’s kinda straight forward and I really appreciate that he’s not, like, avoiding the questions anymore!”

Whiskey took the words and mulled over them a bit in his mind. He needed to just talk to Bitty. It felt like it would be hard, so he looked at Chowder.

“Could you be in the room when it happens?” he asked, possible a little insecure, and Chowder felt something like a guardian in that moment. He wondered if this was what Bitty felt whenever someone sat down with him to confide in him.

“Yeah, of course,” he agreed. “Whenever you’re ready.”

It’s rare to see Whiskey smile, but Whiskey did so in that moment.

“Thanks.”

.

.

.

.

Days later, when Whiskey is helping Bitty make a batch of lemon meringue macarons, Chowder quietly slips into the kitchen with his laptop to do some coding homework. Whiskey appreciates his silent presence and starts up a conversation with Bitty.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a slut for feedback, so please, tell me what you liked? What you didn't? How it made you feel?


End file.
